— One Year Time Skip —
It had been nearly two years since I arrived in this world, and to be honest, it felt more like twenty. Saying I had been busy would be an understatement. Overwhelmed would be a more accurate description.
Every day was filled with studying the holy language and cosmic knowledge. Every night was spent studying magic and working with Qetsiyah on the final step of the immortality spell. The final step alone took nearly a year for the three of us to complete. It was the most important one and the hardest; the reason I was so busy also had to do with the spell.
Yes—the three of us.
And the third person should be obvious.
Silas.
The partnership started about six months ago, when Qetsiyah decided that instead of working separately, we should combine our strengths and work together. She believed our collaboration would speed up the process.
She was right.
But her excited expression whenever she talked about her future life with Silas made it… difficult for me. Because I knew how it would end.
So she invited me to the travellers' residence so we could work together openly, and since Silas would be present, there were naturally no problems regarding her reputation or our meeting.
— Scene Playback —
"You know, Michael," Qetsiyah said during one of our dream meetings, "it's been two years since we've known each other, but we still haven't met face to face. I think it's time we change that.
The spell would also be completed faster if we worked together with my fiancé, who you still haven't met. He is very good at spellcasting and should help us speed up the process. What do you think?"
"Alright," I replied. "I have no problem with that. Let's do it in a few days. And I think you're right—this step has taken too much time already."
"Oh? I didn't know one year was a long time for you," she said teasingly.
"It isn't," I replied. "But for you, every minute matters, doesn't it? You don't want anyone to discover what you're doing. The slower we are, the more likely someone will stumble upon it by accident."
"You're right," she said. Then she looked at me more seriously. "But I always wanted to ask you about your plans."
"My plans?"
"Yes. After the spell succeeds. Silas and I will leave. The local witches will not welcome us anymore. We already decided where to go. But what about you?"
"Well…" I paused. "I will probably stay here for a while. Which means we will separate soon. So I just wanted to say thank you while I still can."
She looked at me for a moment.
"No problem," she said. "We are friends. We will meet again in the future, no matter how long it takes. Right?"
"Yeah," I said. "You're right. So let's not get sentimental."
She laughed. "You're the one who started it."
"I think you're mistaken," I replied.
She laughed even harder.
— Scene Playback End —
A few days after that, I met Silas officially.
And not just him—the other travellers as well.
They didn't know what I was, only that I was powerful. That was how nature perceived me, and that feeling was relayed to them. For that reason, they treated me with extreme politeness and respect.
Silas, on the other hand, was precisely what I expected.
A manipulator. A liar. He was a half-psychopath, possessing strong narcissistic tendencies. Exactly like he was portrayed in the show in my previous life—almost perfectly accurate.
With Perception of Truth active almost all the time now, I could see lies, emotions, intent, and supernatural structures. Recently, I had even started seeing glimpses of magic itself—its flow, structure, and instability. The ability was definitely improving and I kept using it.
But that wasn't why I mentioned it.
It was because, in my ears, every third or fourth sentence coming out of Silas's mouth was a lie. And his natural expression made him the perfect deceiver. Few people could resist his charm.
Naturally, I kept my distance from him from the very beginning. But he tried to get closer. He could tell I was different, and that probably made him curious.
Not only that, but the breakdown of his relationship with Qetsiyah was approaching.
They had already chosen a wedding date, and it was less than two months away.
And that made him… irritating.
In the last few weeks, whenever I looked into his eyes, I had to suppress the urge to smite him on the spot.
As the date of the coming storm approached, I felt conflicted. I felt bad for Qetsiyah… But at the same time, I was excited.
I knew that something significant would emerge from this situation.
At least for me.
I opened my panel.
╔══════════════════════════════╗
║ TEMPLATE SYSTEM ║
╠══════════════════════════════╣
Current Template:
Archangel – Michael
Age: 18
Race: Angel
Synchronisation Rate:
9.5%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current Power:
Tier 9-C
True Power:
Tier 8-B
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Current Abilities:
• Smite
• Telekinesis
• Perception of Truth
• Dream Walking
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Equipment:
• Michael's Sword (Sealed)
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Notice:
"Divine authority restricted.
Output limited to preserve world stability."
╚══════════════════════════════╝
I was nearing 10% synchronisation.
One tenth of my template.
And I was excited—because I had a feeling that once I reached it, my wings would return. I didn't understand why I was so sure. It was just intuition. But if it were true, then my biggest problem for the next two thousand years—travel—would disappear.
Not to mention the various abilities I'd "unlock."
And yes—unlock is not the right word.
Remember.
Meg told me from the beginning: I wasn't inheriting Michael's power.
I was Michael.
This wasn't a new template. This was a reset. Level 100 reset to level 1.
So I needed to stop saying I was "reviewing Michael's memories" or "learning Michael's abilities.".
Those were my memories. My abilities.
When that realisation truly settled in my mind, something changed.
I suddenly felt… less emotional about Qetsiyah.
Not because I didn't care.
But because I finally understood something.
I had always been an angel.
And humans… no matter how important they felt in the moment… were temporary.
So yes, I was excited.
Because I could feel it—abilities waiting to be remembered.
Waiting to return.
And just like that, two months flew by.